by Bill Clegg
First published 2012
Bill Clegg sits in his new independent literary agency office, surrounded by the trappings of success in New York's publishing world. He has loving relationships, enviable connections, and a promising future. Yet despite recent rehabilitation for a crack addiction that began in his teens, Clegg cannot resist the pull of drugs. What follows is a months-long descent that strips away his house, his money, his career, and nearly his life. Clegg moves through a world of compulsive drug use, urgent sexual encounters, and complete self-abandonment. The brief moments of euphoria give way to the nightmare of withdrawal and paranoia. Living a double life becomes impossible as his addiction takes control. The novel traces not only his spectacular fall but also examines the roots of his destructive behavior in his past. This autobiographical fiction captures the reality of how someone can abandon everything they have worked to achieve, showing the enslavement that addiction creates and the spiral of increasingly desperate consumption that follows.
Genres: literary-fiction, addiction, autobiography, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: addiction, downward-spiral, redemption
Setting: New York
280 pages · Paperback · SUMA
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, substance-abuse